𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃

15. 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲

"THIS THING ON?"

Tony holds a thick paper-like 'football' as he eyes the blue robot, inspecting her makeshift goal. The man leans back. Flicking the object with his finger, it flies across the table, and not exactly understand the game, Nebula tries to block the object.

"You don't need to do that," he informs, finding it a bit amusing. "Because, uh, you're just holding the position." Then, Nebula gives it a try. The female robot grunts when she misses, but Tony tries to cheer her up with encouragement. By her third try, Nebula made a perfect goal. "That's a goal. We are now one apiece."

"I would like to try again."

A frail and thin man sat in front of what was left of his suit, a helmet to represent who he once was. It stared back at him with its cracked glass in the eye area. Half of the facepiece was ripped from its place. It became a thing that Tony Stark started to do as he floated in the void of space--creating multiple video diaries for his fiancé. Not knowing how long he'll manage to live in the ship with little to no food and oxygen running low, Tony was almost out of time.

Days have gone by, which turned into weeks; Tony was losing hope, and though he wanted to continue fighting and get back home to his fiancé, the man was far too weak. But before he could go, the man needed his fiancé to know that he was alive.

The two unlikely companions continued to play back and forth, taking turns trying to score a goal. "We're tied up. Feel the tension? It's fun," Tony flicks the object, but it falls further from Nebula's makeshift goal. "That was terrible. Now you have a chance to win."

Nebula scores perfectly. "Now you won," Tony informs. "Congratulations. Fair game." He offers her a hand. Accepting his hand, Nebula was so curious and intrigued with these human games. "Good sport. You have fun?"

Nebula sat back down. There was no smile as she never experienced such feelings. "It was fun."

"Hey, Miss Potts. Pep. If you find this recording . . . don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker. I don't know if you're ever gonna see these. I don't even know if you're still . . ." The thought of Pepper vanishing into nothing just as everyone else he loves, Tony didn't want to believe it. "Oh, God, I hope so."

"Today's day twenty-one," he sounded unsure. There was no sun or moon to regulate the time and day. "No, uh, twenty-two. you know, if it weren't for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space, I'd say I'm feeling a little better today."

As usual, Nebula was attending to Tony's wound created by his own weapon by the hands of Thanos, piercing his skin. The scar was an angry red, blemishes around the scar that showed irritation, but Nebula's high tech was sealing the cracked and open skin.

"Infection's run its course, thanks to the Blue Meanie back there. Oh, you'd love her--so would Eszter. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic. So, the fuel cells were cracked during battle . . . and we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge . . . and bought ourselves about forty-eight hours of flight time."

Tony was trying his best to work on the ship. Find ways to fix something that will buy him time and hopefully get them somewhere in space. Nebula was always there beside the human, offerings much help as she possibly can. Nebula was fixing some object of the ship, bending it to where it'll manipulate the ship and act as if they had repaired it, but they only altered what they had.

Lonely in space, the ship was still with its engine completely dead, no longer able to move as they only drifted further into space.

"Uh, but it's now dead in the water--a thousand light-years from the nearest 7-Eleven. Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning . . . and that'll be it. Pep, I know I said no more surprises, but I gotta say, I was really hoping to pull off one last one."

Tony held a back of space food, possibly of what was the last bit of food that they might have left, and he felt a little guilty from hogging it all. A friendly gesture, the hero offers the woman the last few pieces that he managed to have leftover; fortunately, Nebula didn't survive off of human food as Tony does.

The blue woman merely pushes it back towards him, silently telling him that she wasn't hungry and that it was okay for him to eat the rest. And he did.

"But it looks like . . . well, you know what it looks like," Tony presses his fingers against his chin, exhaustion was finally getting to him, and the man was finding it more difficult to force his eyes open. "Don't feel bad about this. I mean, actually, if you grovel for a couple of weeks . . . and then move on with enormous guilt . . ." Cradling his head, there was a massive pounding sensation at the frontal lobe, his eyes begging to close as his body yearned to fall asleep. "I should probably lie down for a minute. Go rest my eyes."

He sighs. "Please know . . . when I drift off, it'll be like every night lately. I'm fine. Totally fine," Tony whispers. "I dream about you. Because it's always you."

Then, Tony powers the mask off, ending the video.

Tony had fallen asleep on the hard cold floor of the Benatar. Nebula came over and ended up placing the human onto one of the chairs. The man stayed asleep when he couldn't even force himself to wake from his deep slumber, Tony's body practically begging him to continue sleeping for his body to restore itself.

But there was a bright yellow glow that lit onto Tony's pale skin, and slowly as it got closer and closer and closer, the man forced his eyes to open. He struggled to open them from exhaustion and the blinding light in front of him. Tony held his hand out, blocking the light as best as he could. But it wasn't until the figure got more closer to the glass window of the ship, the man was gobsmacked at what he was seeing. Or rather who.

Floating in the abyss of space, a woman with light blonde hair and a suit of red, blue, and gold as the signature colors represent her--Captain Marvel, also known as Carol Danvers. There was a glow that still emitted from her person, showing Tony that she looked human, but her powers were far complex than what he's seen back on Earth. Surely the woman wasn't part of Strucker's experiment because only three people survived through it. So, who was she then? It was left unanswered because the woman didn't bother to engage in any conversation; she needed to return Tony.

And they were off back to Earth.